Bruno Braeuer

Bruno Braeuer (4 February 1893-20 May 1947) was a General der Fallschirmtruppe of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Biography
Bruno Braeuer was born in Willmannsdorf, Silesia, German Empire on 4 February 1893, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I before switching from the Reichswehr to the police during the Interwar period. In 1936, he became a general of the Luftwaffe's parachute group, and he became a colonel in 1939. Braeuer fought in the invasion of Poland that year and in the occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, and Braeuer commanded a fallschirmjaeger battle group at the Battle of Crete in 1941. In November 1942, he replaced Alexander Andrae as the commander of German forces on Crete, and he released 100 prisoners from jail on Greek National Day on 25 March 1943. In 1944, Friedrich-Wilhelm Mueller replaced him as commander of Crete, and he led the German 9th Parachute Division at the Battle of Breslau in 1945. He was relieved of command after his men collapsed and he suffered from a nervous breakdown. After the war, he was tried for war crimes by a Greek court, which accused him of killing 3,000 Cretans. He was convicted of crimes that were actually committed under another general, his co-defendant Mueller, and the two of them were executed by firing squad on 20 May 1947, the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Crete.